September 26, 2016

The First Half-Presidential Debate

One thing is clear. Trump crammed for this debate. He honed every "commonsense" bit of sloganeering he could think of and consequently performed better, from a populist point of view, than I expected — and that, given his grading curve, is probably not good for Clinton. Holt provided virtually no fact-checking and so Clinton was left to play offense through defense. Holt did push back on Trump's denial of having supported the Iraq war, and that, at least, is likely to dominate the media's video-looping tomorrow. In short, Trump made an ass of himself, which is an easy job. On national security and foreign policy in general, Trump made it profoundly clear that he hasn't the vaguest idea of what he's talking about. Unfortunately, American voters are more captivated by domestic economic demagoguery than they are turned off by foreign policy ignorance. But even here he was allowed to demagogue with abandon, especially on the Iran nuclear deal. Again, though — and this is critical — how this debate polls will depend almost entirely on whatever soundbites the television networks choose to loop.

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Has Trump been sniffing cocaine? Jesus he's about to inhale the mic.

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Trump's birther defense is sickening beyond description.

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By throwing around slogans such as "law and order" and "stop and frisk" Trump is only cementing his non-college white vote and Clinton's African-American vote. So far they're both aiming at their base rather than independent undecideds, which confirms that they both believe this is a base election.

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A superb hit by Clinton on Trump's "stiffing" of suppliers, workers, contractors, etc.

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Trump is under perpetual audit and he'll release his returns once he's not under audit. Go figure.

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Trump is getting nasty much earlier than anyone expected. Is this the gentlemanly Trump we were promised? It's only :23 after and he's already blurted "Excuse me" twice and he has repeatedly interrupted Clinton. By debate's end he should be sputtering.

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Trump began sweating at :16 after with Hillary's mention of his exploitation of the housing collapse. "That's called business." (And that off-the-cuff comment is called stupid.)

***

Now that was just goddamn brilliant of you, Donald. How will you bring jobs back into the United States? You won't let them leave.

Comments

The First Half-Presidential Debate

One thing is clear. Trump crammed for this debate. He honed every "commonsense" bit of sloganeering he could think of and consequently performed better, from a populist point of view, than I expected — and that, given his grading curve, is probably not good for Clinton. Holt provided virtually no fact-checking and so Clinton was left to play offense through defense. Holt did push back on Trump's denial of having supported the Iraq war, and that, at least, is likely to dominate the media's video-looping tomorrow. In short, Trump made an ass of himself, which is an easy job. On national security and foreign policy in general, Trump made it profoundly clear that he hasn't the vaguest idea of what he's talking about. Unfortunately, American voters are more captivated by domestic economic demagoguery than they are turned off by foreign policy ignorance. But even here he was allowed to demagogue with abandon, especially on the Iran nuclear deal. Again, though — and this is critical — how this debate polls will depend almost entirely on whatever soundbites the television networks choose to loop.

***

Has Trump been sniffing cocaine? Jesus he's about to inhale the mic.

***

Trump's birther defense is sickening beyond description.

***

By throwing around slogans such as "law and order" and "stop and frisk" Trump is only cementing his non-college white vote and Clinton's African-American vote. So far they're both aiming at their base rather than independent undecideds, which confirms that they both believe this is a base election.

***

A superb hit by Clinton on Trump's "stiffing" of suppliers, workers, contractors, etc.

***

Trump is under perpetual audit and he'll release his returns once he's not under audit. Go figure.

***

Trump is getting nasty much earlier than anyone expected. Is this the gentlemanly Trump we were promised? It's only :23 after and he's already blurted "Excuse me" twice and he has repeatedly interrupted Clinton. By debate's end he should be sputtering.

***

Trump began sweating at :16 after with Hillary's mention of his exploitation of the housing collapse. "That's called business." (And that off-the-cuff comment is called stupid.)

***

Now that was just goddamn brilliant of you, Donald. How will you bring jobs back into the United States? You won't let them leave.